Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Is your "worship" service so regimented God can't break through and join? 2 Chronicles 1-5

... so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.


Imagine being in a worship setting that is so close to glorifying God and having His presence that that presence prevents the worship leaders from furthering leading the worship.   That is the scene we have in the above passage after Solomon dedicates the new Temple he built for God.   David, his father, had wanted to build the Temple.  But, God told him, no.    He was disqualified based upon his life prior to that desire (things we do in our lives can limit our chances for missions for God later in life).   But, David did not go into a shell, he gather all the material, plans and bodies that his son Solomon would need to do the work.  And, Solomon did not disappoint his dad, or his God.   Solomon builds the Temple after years of preparation. Imagine all the anticipation for the even spoken of in the above text.    These peoples, priests and leaders had waited and worked for years to see this day.    In the same manner they prepared and executed the construction of the Temple, they prepared and executed the worship of God about the Temple.    This was not a last minute, "Hey, let's toss a worship service together," moment.   This worship service had sacrifices, priests, worshippers, singers, a full band, and much more.    The theme was, "God is good and holy and loving for eternity."    The results of the pure worship and praise for God was His presence, in the form of a cloud, filling the new Temple.    He filled the Temple so much that the priests could no longer finish their tasks of leading worship.    You know worship is really honoring to God when He honors you with His presence in such a way you can no longer worship.   That should be our measurement: God's presence moving in us and around us in such a way it prevents us from finishing our "play set."    Imagine the members of the band had practiced for months to just play that one song and God, so present, interrupts the "set lists" so that they can't go on.   Do we so have to have our "sets" and "stage choreographic plans" conducted that we miss the point of worship:  The invoking of God's presence in our midst?    Let's not get so uniform in our worship and so tasks oriented that we miss out on the scene in the above text.  That is true worship: God's presence.  

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